


enough angst to end the goddamn world

by romanreigning



Series: there will be better days [1]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Developing Friendships, Gen, Photography Class AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 16:31:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8631028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanreigning/pseuds/romanreigning
Summary: Roman takes pictures and listens to loud music to deal with things. He's not the happiest guy. Dean stumbles into all of this via a lost SD card.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm writing this for myself so the storyline's gonna be a lil weird but whoever reads this is just gonna have to deal with it

He doesn't know what he expects to find, guesses it'll just be class stuff considering he found the SD card in photography, but when he finally finds the folder with the pictures in it, it's not class stuff.

It's photos of what he guesses are crystals or gemstones, resting on top of a phone flashlight to bring out the colour and detail inside them, and even though Dean despises photography class, he's learned what good photos look like (or well, he knows what he likes) and these are pretty cool.

The gems are purple and pink, and then suddenly there's a picture of a husky in some snow, and as Dean keeps pressing the right arrow, more and more cute pictures of husky looking furry dogs appear, much to his delight. One of them especially catches his eye (and heart), a brown and white one with amazing blue eyes called Telega (it's name is painted on it's kennel in the background).

Pressing right again, some pictures of a sunrise through a window and then more pictures of some different gems, the flashlight again providing the light. These gems were small and made the light a different colour when placed over it, Dean finds out when he gets to a picture with a hand that has blue light shining on it, reminding him that someone he probably knows actually took these photos and it reignites his curiosity.

He keeps going through the pics of the gems and a few ones of some rings and then a hand wearing the rings, but Dean pauses because, he's sure that that's a guys hand. He stares at it for a bit more, wondering if he could recognise it, but no one comes to mind so he keeps going. And then he stops.

This picture it's . . . the person behind the camera, the lighting dark and the picture kind of blurry, but Dean knows who it is. It's Roman, the guy with long hair who sits up the front of the class and doesn't talk much, or at all, really.

His hair is down, messy and tangled but it looks natural and he's looking off to the side somewhere, a look of . . . fear? Worry? Sadness? on his face. But it looks so . . . Dean can't even describe it. It feels personal though, and he's hit with immense guilt about invading Roman's privacy.

It doesn't stop him from going to the next photo though, a similar one, but Roman's looking down at something, one of his hands pushing back his hair, and Dean can almost feel the sadness that oozes out of it. His breath catches in his throat, because despite the fact that he's invading someone's privacy and Roman's look sad as hell, he's also quite beautiful.

It's not really about his face, Dean's always found him pretty, but that was just kinda, aesthetically, not romantically. This, this picture, it's fucking amazing. He looks amazing. It looks so different from the face he sees of Roman at school. Maybe because he's not wearing a fake smile. This picture is him. It's nothing else. It's just Roman.

But as the awe wears off he remembers he's not meant to be seeing this and the guilt finally bites him in the ass, and he closes the window and pulls the SD card out, eyes closed.

Photography class just got a lot more interesting.

* * *

 

The next day proves to be average, and Dean nearly dies of nerves since he has photography last. He's pretty sure that they're finally starting their assessment today, and not just looking at boring artist models.

The class is almost empty when he gets there once lunch ended, save for Miss Thorn sitting at her desk up the front.

"Ah, Dean, good afternoon," she greets chirpily, her hair held back by a black bandanna this time. "Ready to start your assessment?"

"Yeah," he says simply, some of his classmates coming into the room behind him. Miss Thorn starts to talk to them instead so he just finds a seat, not really one to do the 'sit in the seat you did the first day' rule most other students follow.

But he doesn't realise what seat this is until someone sits down to the right of him, and he almost jumps when he realises it's Roman. But the guy doesn't say anything to him, doesn't even look, just logs into the computer and then stands back up and walks stiffly to the front, going to the lost and found mini box of SD cards.

 _Crap_ , Dean thinks, realising he'd forgot to put it there like he'd decided he would, so Roman wouldn't know that he'd seen what is on it. _Well, I can do it after class._

Roman returns to his seat, looking sad, even a little annoyed, and then the teacher starts the class.

"Now that you've all chosen three artist models you're gonna take pictures of your own kinda recreating what they did. Part of this assessment requires you to be in pairs and yes I know that's annoying so we're doing that first to get it over with.

"So everyone pick someone else and no you cannot do this in three's," she says, looking at a group of girls specifically. "This picture you will take with your pair isn't an artist recreation but it has to convey some kind of message and you must use the miniatures. This should only take a week at most. Find your partner and decide a theme and maybe even start today? Yes? We good? Everyone in a pair?"

Dean assumes most of the people behind him nod their heads because Miss Thorn nods and mouths "Awesome" before starting to walk around the class, stopping for a moment and resting a hand on Roman's shoulder for a second. "You got a partner?"

"No," Roman replies almost hesitantly, and Dean notes the way he looks like he wants to say more.

"Dean have you got a partner?" Miss Thorn turns her attention to him, and he just shakes his head.

"Perfect! You two can go together," she says, patting both of their shoulders before walking off to talk to the rest of the class, answering questions.

"Um," Dean starts out awkwardly after he realises Roman's making no move to speak, "who did you pick for your artist models?"

Roman stays quiet for a second, still not looking at him, before he mutters "Lilliana Porter, Lisa Swerling and Slinkachu."

"Oh, cool," Dean says, not remembering or even knowing who those people are. "Do you, uh, have you got any ideas?"

"Yeah," Roman says, and then reaches for his computer mouse, opening up a window and logging into Gmail, going onto Google Docs and opening up a document with a few sentences on it. "These are, um, I was gonna use them for my own but I don't really like them, so," he rambles, face going a little red.

Dean scoots his rolling chair over, accidentally misjudging the force he needs and bumping lightly into Roman but trying to pretend like it didn't happen, reading his ideas.

_A miniature in a huge shirt and it's called "Hand Me Downs" or something._

"I like the first one," Dean comments, and Roman just makes a noise which Dean can only guess is in agreement.

_A miniature writing and then there's a huge_ _block_ _in front of it "Writers Block"_

_A miniature holding up a wrestling title in front of a crowd "The Moment"_

"You like wrestling?" he asks, and Roman just replies with a small "Yeah."

_A miniature in a jewelry box "Treasures Found"_

"They're good ideas but they don't really convey a theme . . ." Dean says, inwardly cringing when Roman just nods, but Dean can see the embarrassment on his face.

"Yeah, that's why I said they were stupid."

"Do you uh, wanna do something about like, poverty, or?" Dean says, leaning his chair back, a habit that teachers have never managed to scold out of him. "There's heaps of - fuck!" he loses balance on the chair, due to it having wheels, and ends up falling backwards, arms just kind of flailing as he swears he sees his life flash before his eyes. His head hits the floor hard, the air rushing out of him.

People around him laugh, and Miss Thorn just yells "Don't swing on you chair Dean" kind of tiredly from the back of the class, busy with helping another student. He feels embarrassed about the whole ordeal until his eyes catch Roman's and he sees him trying to suppress a laugh behind his hand, smiling with an actual honest to god _twinkle_ in his eyes.

The feeling returns, the feeling Dean got when he saw those pictures of Roman, and he suddenly doesn't feel so bad.

"Fuck you," he mutters out, smiling. "I'm dying down here. Fucking chair tried to kill me."

 _That_ gets Roman to laugh, not fully, but a breathless chuckle that has Dean smiling warmly. He doesn't really make people smile often.

It then occurs to him that he's still laying the ground, but he just decides to lay there, a little concerned with how his head hurts subtly.

"You gonna stay there?" Roman asks like he knows what Dean is thinking, and it seems like the ice is broken between them, and it only took Dean making a fool out of himself once.

"Just until the stars go away," he jokes, and Roman snorts.

"Dean," Miss Thorn says a little while later. "Either you close you eyes or you get up cause I need to get past you and I'm wearing a skirt and I really can't lose my job because it's the only reason I can survive."

Dean sighs but finally sits up and lets the teacher pass behind him before standing up and getting his chair upright, sitting back down on it.

"How about like, how stressful school is?" Roman suggests, shrugging.

"Yeah, but how could we do that?"

"Just have a miniature with like tons of paper around it or something."

"Yeah, maybe," Dean sighs. "What if we did like, depression or suicide though? That's a good theme."

Roman seems to pause, his neutral face morphing into a toned down expression of the one he had in the pictures, and Dean instantly knows he's said something bad, guilt stabbing at him for making Roman feel anything less then comfortable.

"I don't, I don't really wanna do that," he says.

"That's fine," Dean says quickly. "We don't have to do that."

They sit in silence for a few minutes, Dean feeling like a jerk, but not knowing what to say to ease the renewed tension.

"How about we do one about war? Like how people fight about religion, and shit," Dean suggests, really running out of ideas and just wanting to break the silence and at least get a theme by the end of the period, which is closing in.

"That's actually a good one, I think I have some ideas," Roman says.

"Yeah?"

"We could like, have an army or something about to raid a place and there's graffiti saying 'people live here', because your worth shouldn't be any less just because you believe in a different god or your skin is a different colour."

Dean's quiet for a while, taking in the words.

"I mean, it's kinda based on a song I know, but still," Roman shrugs.

"What song?"

"People Live Here, by Rise Against."

"I'll have to listen to it tonight," Dean smiles, and then the class starts to log off computers and get ready to leave almost at the same time.

"Alright my heathens," Miss Thorn says. "You should all be taking pictures on Monday. If you haven't decided a theme, talk to your buddy over the weekend and figure something out. Alright, see ya."

Dean makes sure he doesn't move until Roman leaves the room, pretending to check messages on his cracked phone before walking up to the front of the class, taking Roman's SD card out of his pocket.

"Where'd you find that?" Miss Thorn asks him.

"In the computer," he says.

"Funny, I checked all of the computers before the start of the class," Thorn says, and inwardly Dean curses.

"Found it yesterday," he says, still mentally cursing, knowing that he isn't fooling her.

"Why didn't you hand it in yesterday then?" The whole class has cleared out now, leaving them alone, though some year thirteens start to wander in, taking computers at the back of the class.

"Just forgot," he says, finally dropping it into the box with all the other lost SD cards, and then he turns around only to see Roman walking back into the class. _Oh goddamnit fuck_ he thinks.

"Miss, did anyone find and SD card today?" Roman asks.

 _Please don't, please don't, please don't_ Dean chants in his head.

"Dean just put one in the box, didn't you Dean?" Miss Thorn says, and then flashes him a smile that tells him she knows exactly what kind of situation he's in.

"Yeah," he smiles back awkwardly. "Found it on the floor today when I fell over."

Miss Thorn has the power to completely ruin everything right now, and she looks positively ecstatic about it.

Roman gives him a questioning look, like he doesn't quite believe him, but he goes to the box and pulls out his SD card, muttering a good bye and leaving again, along with all the breath in Dean's body.

"What was all that about?" Miss Thorn asks almost innocently, taking a sip of her coke.

"I accidentally took his SD card home," Dean says, just wanting to be out of this situation. "Please don't tell him."

"What? Does he have nudes on it or something?"

"No," Dean face flushes a little, "But I shouldn't have looked at his pictures."

"It's okay Dean, I won't tell him," Miss Thorn reassures, and Dean's panic lessens. "Go home man, I got assessments to grade. The quicker I get this done the quicker I can get to binge watching Supernatural till four in the morning."

Dean laughs and says goodbye, leaving the class room finally, most of the school clear of students rushing to get home. He takes a different path though, heading to the town library.

* * *

 

Ever since he was old enough to walk around town on his own (which was much earlier than most other kids) Dean's always gone straight from school to the library.

For one, it's actually a pretty good place to do his homework and whatnot, and second, it beats sitting around alone at home since his mother doesn't get home till very late. He knows all the of the librarians personally and even some of the other people who go there regularly, mostly old people or little kids.

Sometimes the librarians bring some extra food in their lunches to give to him, but Dean doesn't really like eating at school so he always has some food anyway.

He doesn't have any homework today so he sets his attention on the shelf of books, saying a quiet greeting to AJ, a dad who brings his kids to get books every Thursday, his two little boys and a very little girl.

He settles for a non-fiction book about wolves and sits at one of the tables, reading it, though it's aimed for little kids, the information basic and a little boring.

He finishes it and pushes it away, pulling out his phone, trying to think if he actually does have something to do. _Oh, right, the song Roman mentioned._

He opens up YouTube and pulls out his phone, waving and smiling at one of the newest librarians, a funny Irish woman with bright orange hair called Becky, who's talking to a taller blonde.

He types in the song name and taps on a lyric video, leaning back in his chair a little.

_"My God is better than yours, and the walls of my house are so thick, I hear nothing at all."_

Dean physically nods in appreciation of the tune, though it's not really something he'd listen to by choice. The song goes on, and he sees how Roman got the idea from it.

And as if on cue Roman appears from behind a bookshelf, looking bored as hell but then spotting Dean, looking just as surprised to see Dean here as Dean is to see him.

"Hey," Roman says as he walks over, "What are you doing here?"

"I come here a lot," Dean shrugs, pulling the ear buds out of his ears. "You?"

"My big sisters decided they suddenly wanted to read and shit so naturally the whole family had to come along," Roman sighs as he takes a seat on the opposite side of the table, though it's square so there isn't much distance between them.

"I just listened to that song," Dean says, and sees Roman's face light up a little.

"Oh yeah? Did you like it?"

"Kinda, but I like rock songs more. Good lyrics though," Dean says.

Roman nods. "Yeah, it's not my favourite, but it's still good. What kinda bands do you like?"

Dean shrugs. "Don't really know. I'm more of a song guy than a band guy, I'm trying to think of songs I know but my mind's kinda drawing blank. What about you?"

Roman thinks for a second. "Red Hot Chilli Peppers."

"Oh yeah, I think I like them. Californication?" Roman nods.

"I like Kings of Leon as well, and Hollywood Undead, and Twenty-One Pilots," Roman continues, "And some Offspring."

"Oh sweet," Dean says.

"So uh, do you wanna do the assessment at school or nah?" Roman changes the subject.

"Nah, I don't really like taking pictures at school," Dean says.

"Yeah, same," Roman agrees. "I love taking pictures but when it's for school, it's just not fun.

Those pictures of Roman flash through Dean mind again and a faint feeling of guilt returns, but he ignores it. "We could do it at my place, we'd probably have the whole place to ourselves," Dean suggests.

Roman shrugs. "Let's just see what happens on Monday."

* * *

 

They do.

While the rest of the class is taking their pictures and setting up their scenes, Dean and Roman are planning how their one is going to look and choosing some potential miniature people to use, relived to find that there's little machine guns ranging in size along with all the other miniature objects.

At the end of the day they walk out of the class together and start to walk out of the school when Roman says "Maybe we could take the picture at night?"

"What?" Dean says.

"Like, there's an alley a few houses away from where I live that's right by a street light. It'd be real atmospheric," he says.

"That's a pretty good idea," Dean agrees. "I'll just have to tell my mom where I am though."

"Yeah. Are you gonna go home or do you wanna come over?" Roman asks.

"But it's such short notice," Dean says.

"My parents are chill. They'll probably be overjoyed that I actually bought a friend home," Roman shrugs and laughs.

"Nah sorry, I think I'll go home, but we needa exchange numbers so you can text me your address."

"Yeah, it's okay," Roman says, and they pull out their phones to do just that, and Dean walks with him until their paths separate, Roman heading to his home while Dean just goes to the library.

* * *

 

Later Dean knocks on Roman's door, the sun beginning to set. A woman opens the door, one of Roman's sisters, who calls for him and then turns her eye back to Dean, obviously observing him.

"You Roman's friend?" she asks.

"Yeah, I guess," he says, shifting uncomfortably, relieved when Roman comes and saves him, walking through the house with him unquestioned and not running into any of his other family members.

"I uh, my room's a bit messy," Roman says sheepishly as he pushes the door open. Dean doesn't reply until he sees it himself. It is a bit messy, he'll admit.

"It's okay, my room's like this too," Dean replies, smiling and sitting down on Roman's bed as he fiddles with his own camera, slotting an SD card into it.

"That's different from the one you got out of the box earlier," Dean comments absent-mindedly, noticing the difference in colour.

"Yeah, I have a school one and one for like, my photography," Roman explains quietly, turning the camera on and fiddling with the settings.

"You really like taking pictures don't you?" Dean says, and a smile tugs on Roman's lips.

"Yeah. A little. Do you think it's dark enough yet?"

Dean stands up and makes his way to Roman's window, looking outside. "I'd give it a bit."

Roman nods. "Okay."

A little while later the two of them are standing in the dark alleyway, using the sickly orange glow of the streetlamp as their lighting and starting to create the scene.

* * *

"You need to redo this," is the first thing Miss Thorn says to them the next photography class.

"What?" Dean asks, confused.

"Well, for starters, this isn't what you were supposed to be doing. You were supposed to come up with a theme together but each do different things with it. I'm not saying that this is bad, but I can't accept it to be marked."

The next ten minutes of the period is sat in silence as Roman stares at the keyboard of the computer and Dean's scowl feels permanently etched into his face.

They'd put so much effort into making the scene look awesome. Honest to god, that was the first time Dean had actually _enjoyed_ taking pictures. He _wanted_ them to be good. He was so proud of the result, and so was Roman. But now it doesn't even count?

"This is stupid," he mutters under his breath, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. Roman makes no comment.


End file.
